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John F. Sheehan, Communications Director
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Released, Thursday, April 29, 2004

ALBANY, NY - The Adirondack Park's largest environmental organization today called on the NYS Legislature and Gov. George Pataki to scrap two old, complex programs for encouraging good private forest management and replace them with a program that doesn't shift the costs to Adirondack families and homeowners.

The Adirondack Council released a report today calling for a series of reforms, including a new timberland tax abatement program funded by the state, not local taxpayers. The report is entitled Shifting the Burden: Forest Tax Abatement Programs in the Adirondack Park. Click here to view the report.

"Our number one priority is to persuade the state to lift an onerous financial burden from the backs of Adirondack towns and school districts," said Adirondack Council Executive Director Brian L. Houseal. "They are paying for programs that were designed to benefit the entire state. It's unfair and it should stop. But that's not the only problem.

"The state's two programs for encouraging good private forest stewardship are broken beyond repair," said Houseal. "The two programs were created in 1926 and 1974. The state has lost track of which landowners are enrolled in the 1926 program and isn't monitoring their operations anymore. But the abatements are still being granted.

"The state cut off new enrollments in 1974 and created a new program," he said. "But the new program requires landowners to harvest trees, whether they want to or not. Many landowners would rather manage their forests in a wild state. Currently, the state provides them with no incentives."

"Worse yet," Houseal explained, "the tax breaks to timberland owners amount to one of the largest unfunded state mandates in the Adirondack Park. More than one-third of the Park's 92 towns are losing significant revenue each year to these tax breaks. When the largest forest landowners in a town are paying a small fraction of the full tax levy on their lands, it's the homeowners and the small businesses that make up the difference. They don't get any say in which properties are granted abatements, but they have to reach deeper into their wallets when property taxes are due."

Shifting the Burden: Forest Tax Abatement in the Adirondack Park is the result of months of research, interviews and analysis conducted by Adirondack Council staff and graduate students from the Rockefeller Institute for Public Policy participating in the Council's Clarence Petty Internship Program. It builds on a report issued in 1994 by the NYS Office of Real Property Services, which identified several problems that have only grown worse with the passing of another decade, Houseal said.

Problems with the Timberland Tax Abatement programs include:

• No reimbursement to local governments for lost revenues.
• Lack of accountability.
• Cumbersome regulations for landowners.
• New enrollments by landowners in the Park are climbing rapidly, adding to the financial burden on towns and school districts.
• More than one-third of the 92 towns within the Adirondack Park are losing more than one percent of their property tax base to the timberland tax abatements granted under the two programs.
• Several towns are losing more than five percent of their total tax assessments.

Recommendations of the new report include:

1. The New York State Legislature should include in the 2004-2005 State Budget provisions to Provide full state reimbursement to municipalities impacted by state timberland tax abatement programs in the Adirondack Park.

• Direct collection of stumpage fees from timber harvesting under the timber tax abatement programs to the state to help offset the costs of the program.
• Require an application fee and an annual filing fee for the program.

2. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation should revise its regulations to:

• Accept third-party "green certified" sustainable harvesting programs as an alternative to the current requirement of timber harvesting management plans
• Require participating landowners to provide a siting plan to minimize the environmental impact of the location of recreational leased cabins and the construction of roadways

3. The State Legislature should form a Joint Conference Committee to consider the establishment of a new forest tax abatement program in the Adirondack Park:

• Expanding the scope of the program to forest stewardship and wildlife and open space protection.
• Eliminating the existing 480 and 480-a real property tax programs, allowing landowners to transition without penalty into a new program.

The Adirondack Council's mission is to ensure the ecological integrity and wild character of the Adirondack Park. Founded in 1975, the Council is a privately funded, not-for-profit organization that accomplishes its goals through research, education, advocacy and legal action.